PTA receives 2,892 complaints against PTCL

ISLAMABAD (August 17 2007): Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is leading other telecom operators in poor performance as about 2,892 complaints were lodged against it (PTCL) with the PTA during April-June 2007, sources told Business Recorder on Thursday.

Sources said that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), regulator, received as many as 2,892 complaints against PTCL followed by Mobilink with 331 complaints during April to June 07.

Moreover, the operators, fixed line and cellular, have been turning blind eye to the PTA warning, not working to bring about any improvement in their services. Hence a large number of subscribers consider it in vain to lodge any complaint with the regulators because of general impression that operators are more powerful than the regulator.

The PTA received 1,088 complaints against PTCL in April, 927 in May and 877 in the month of June. There were 143 complaints against Mobilink in April, 112 in May and 76 in June. The complaints received against Ufone were 128 in April, 132 in May and 65 in June.

Similarly, as many as 101 complaints were received against Warid in April, 110 in June and 78 in May whereas the authority received 90 complaints against Telenor in April, 68 in May and 54 in June. When contacted the concerned official said that to assess the performance of the telecom operators, the PTA regularly conduct Quality of Service (QoS) surveys and inspection through its regional offices and it acts according to results of these surveys.

This practice, he said, has been effective and various operators have been pursued on the issue but admitted that there has been a large number of complaints against PTCL. People have been lodging their complaints against PTCL for poor quality of services and delay in rectification of faults.

When asked what action PTA would take on these complaints, he said that the authority could issue a warning to the operators and also opt for taking legal action against them.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:8/17/2007